Method for providing background music

ABSTRACT

Apparatus and methods for serving ambient music area described herein.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/877,208, filed Sep. 8, 2010, which claims benefit under 35 U.S.C.§119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/240,712 filed on Sep. 9,2009, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatus and methods forproviding background music to web sites and/or to software applicationssuch as business productivity applications.

BACKGROUND AND RELATED ART

Some embodiments of the present invention relate to ‘informationalwebsites’ such as branding websites, ecommerce websites, blogs, newswebsites, or any other news websites. Some embodiments of the presentinvention relate to computing applications such as ‘businessproductivity’ applications (e.g. a word processor application,spreadsheet application, integrated development environment (IDE) forwriting computer code, bank software, etc).

FIGS. 1-3 are derived from screen shots of well-known websites. FIGS.1A-1C relate to an ecommerce website (Amazon.com®), FIGS. 2A-2C relateto a branding website which lacks ecommerce functionality (the ‘VisitMaine’ travel web site), while FIG. 3 relates to a generic news articlewebsite.

One feature that is completely optional for informational websites (i.e.ecommerce or branding or other informational websites) but which, todate, is ubiquitous is the presence of navigational components fornavigating the website according to categories of sub-categories. Thus,in FIGS. 1A-1B, the user is presented a menu of categories orsub-categories, and can instruct the website to display products orservices by category. It is noted that although it is possible topurchase music via ecommerce sites (including Amazon—see the ‘music’portion of the “Movies, Music & Games” category), it is possible topurchase a myriad of products and services (for example, travelservices, health services, education services, car-rental services, etc)that have no real connection to music.

As is evident in FIGS. 1C-1D, one visual motif for informational displaythat is completely optional but quite ubiquitous today is the display ofdescriptions of a plurality of products or services—the user may be ableto ‘click’ onto one of the ‘description objects’ (i.e. text descriptionand/or image description) to receive additional information about theproduct or service, or to initiate a purchase process.

Thus, in the example of FIG. 1C, the user receives a menu of categoriesof products or services (i.e. non-musical products of services)—a ‘smallappliance’ category, a ‘vacuum category,’ and a ‘grills/smokers’category. In FIG. 1D, individual products (in this case, freezers) aredisplayed.

FIGS. 2A-2C relate to a ‘non-ecommerce’ informational website (i.e.Visit Maine) designed to promote the “State of Maine brand.” Althoughthe website may be configured primarily to convey information ratherthan to sell products, this non-ecommerce informational website mayinclude certain structural features that were present in the ‘ecommerce’website described in FIG. 1. Thus, in FIG. 2B, certain categories ofproducts or services are described; a plurality of image or textdescription are simultaneously displayed as a ‘batch.’

Another type of information website is a news site. As shown in FIG. 3,it is quite common for news sites (or any informational web site) toinclude ‘primary content’ in the central region of the display screen aswell as one or more pieces of ‘secondary content’ such as banner adds orgoogle text ads which for example are either to the side of the screenor displayed near the center of the screen in a manner that is ‘offset’from the primary content (for example, a small amount of content set offfrom a larger amount of primary content by a different found, or withinsome sort of visual border).

Embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatus and methods forproviding background or ‘ambient’ or ‘business’ music to informationalwebsites (any web site including but not limited to informational websites having structures described in FIGS. 1-3) and to softwareapplications such as business productivity applications (discussedbelow).

Music holds the key to our emotions. It can be exciting and uplifting,playful and funny, or relaxing and laid back. Whatever the mood, wealways respond. The same is true for other sensory stimulations.

There is no doubt of the huge increase in the quantity, quality anddifferent forms of sensual stimulations that modern technology hasbrought to our lives. One cannot sit at a coffee shop, visit a shoppingmall or relax at a hotel lobby without hearing background music,stumbling over LCD screens or smelling special scents.

It is widely recognized in retail, restaurants, leisure and otherindustries that creating the right, customized atmosphere can serve as apowerful tool to communicate brand values, engage with customers andencourage them to stay longer which leads to more sales and brandconnection. In a high speed changing, dynamic world, with so muchdifferent people with different needs and tastes, it is hard if notimpossible to create the right atmosphere for each. Even if you succeedto create the right atmosphere, you need to get feedback, learn and tryto optimize the results over time.

SUMMARY OF EMBODIMENTS

A method for serving background music is now disclosed. The methodcomprises: a) for each non-musical product or non-musical service itemof a plurality of items, causing a user terminal in communication withone or more servers via a computer network to display a respectivedescription of the product or service item (for example, so thatmultiple descriptions are displayed in a single batch); and b) causingthe user terminal to play one or more audio songs at a time that issimultaneous with the displaying of step (a) and/or in response to the auser request to display the items.

In some embodiments, the audio songs selected in accordance with thecombination of: i) a theme describing the one or more of the displayednon-musical product or service items (or any non-musical theme ofnon-musical visual content); ii) user-specific or user terminal-specificpersonal data associated with the user terminal or the user (i.e. toidentify the specific users to associate the user with one or moresub-populations); and iii) a non-musical business objective functionrelated to future non-musical purchasing activity or future estimatednon-musical surfing activity

It is noted that even though songs may be selected and served to a useraccording to specific visual content (e.g. articles or descriptions ofproducts or services), there is no requirement that the song is‘switched’ or ‘initiated’ at times corresponding to times the userrequests visual content or at times that new visual content isdisplayed.

I In one example, the user may click on a link to a non-musical textarticle (e.g. a non-musical blog entry to a non-musical news article) orthe user may instruct a branding site (or ecommerce site or informationsite) to display visual descriptions of products or services. The usermay use any navigation tool including but not limited to navigationtools on the web site (i.e. text books or menus) or any other tools.

In some embodiments, the ambient music served may be closely tiedspecifically to the non-musical content item (e.g. description of aservice or product or other content such as news articles) the userrequested rather than to ancillary content not requested by the user.Thus, in some embodiments, the method is carried out such that: i) itemswhose description is displayed in step (a) are explicitly requested bythe user in an explicit user request; and ii) the selection of theambient music is carried out such that the explicitly-request items havea greater weight than other information or other items displayed on thescreen.

Explicit user request for visual content include but are not limited to(i) brand requests for non-musical items (e.g. manufacturer of sportinggoods or furniture or household applicants or pet products or any otheritem) (ii) a ‘category request’ for a category of products or services(iii) a ‘date request’ for travel date and (iv) an ‘item descriptiontext’ entered via a text box either on the site or even on an externalsearch engine such as Google® or Bing®.

In some embodiments, the method is carried out such that: i)descriptions of at least some of the items of step (a) are displayed ina primary display region of a screen of the user display; and ii) theselection of the ambient music is carried out such that preference isgiven to the primary display region of the screen at the expense ofregion outside of the primary display region.

The optimization of the business objective function may be ‘local’ orglobal’ In some embodiments, it may be possible to provide greaterweight to a ‘lifetime value of a customer’ rather than to immediatepurchasing—in this case, it may be desired to encourage future user orextended use of a website rather than immediate purchase.

The, in some embodiments, the non-musical business objective functionoptimizes a global estimated future dwell time of a website of thedisplayed non-musical items of step (a) by the user or a globalestimated future purchase parameter of the website the user at theexpense of local estimated future dwell time or purchases of any itemdisplayed in step (a). In one non-limiting example, this may be carriedout to encourage the user to re-use navigation widgets on the site (e.g.categories menus, etc).

Appropriate user-specific data explicitly identifying a single user orgroup of user that may be used to select ambient music includes but isnot limited to i) a foreign country or foreign time zone of the userterminal; ii) an estimated age of a user of the user terminal (or otherdemographics) iii) an estimated household or personal income of a userof the user terminal; and iv) a web-navigation path to the informationalwebsite which presents the non-musical product or service items.

As is discussed below, in some embodiments, context parameters relatingto the ‘immediate situation’ may also be utilized when selecting songsto serve as ambient music—for example, a list of songs heard by the useror played on the terminal device in the recent past (e.g. in the lastweek or day or hour and/or in the current use sessions).

In some embodiments, the song selection is carried out according to alarge-scale statistical model. This large-scale statistical model may beperiodically (i.e. at any time intervals—fixed time intervals or varyingtime intervals) updated according to detected user behavior toiteratively train and use the updated/trained model.

In some embodiments, the song selection is carried out according to oneor more context factors specific to the current session.

Some embodiments relate to a method comprising: a) displaying a block ofnon-musical free-text including one or more complete sentences (in someembodiments, 3 or 5 or 10 or more free sentences—for example, as in newssites); and b) causing the user terminal to play one or more audio songsat a time that is simultaneous with the displaying of step (a), theaudio songs selected in accordance with the combination of: i) a themedescribing the one or more of the displayed non-musical product orservice items; ii) user-specific or user terminal-specific personal dataassociated with the user terminal or the user; and iii) a businessobjective function related to dwell time spent reading the free-textand/or to future surfing and/or requests for additional free-textblocks.

It is now disclosed a method comprising: a) displaying, on a userterminal, non-musical textual content including a multi-sentence articleor a multi-sentence blog entry (including at least 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 orany number of sentences); and b) causing the user terminal to play oneor more audio songs at a time that is simultaneous with the displayingof step (a), the audio songs selected in accordance with the combinationof: i) a non-musical theme of the textual content; ii) user-specific oruser terminal-specific personal data associated with the user terminalor the user; and iii) a business objective function related to futureestimated surfing activity on a site of the non-musical textual contentand/or dwell time reading the current-displayed non-musical textualcontent.

It is now disclosed a method comprising: a) causing a user terminal toplay a plurality of audio songs to a user at a time when the userterminal is locally or remotely running a business-productivity-softwareapplication; b) for each audio song, acquiring a respective productivitymetric describing user productivity and/or user accuracy at a time thatthe audio song is playing on the user terminal; c) correlating audiosong features with user productivity using the business-productivitysoftware application; and d) at a later time, in accordance with theresults of the correlating, causing the user terminal to play backgroundmusic when the user terminal is, at the later time, locally or remotelyrunning a business-productivity-software application

In some embodiments, the business productivity software is selected fromthe group consisting of: i) a word processing application; ii) an emailapplication; iii) a software utility application; iv) a developmentenvironment; v) a graphical art generation application; and vi) aspreadsheet application.

It is now disclosed a method comprising: a) visually providing, on auser terminal, business productivity software application functionalityto a user; and b) causing the user terminal to play one or more audiosongs at a time that is simultaneous that the user engages the businessproductivity software, the audio songs selected in accordance with oneor more production and/or user accuracy metrics describing usage by theuser of the business productivity software.

In some embodiments, the songs are selected according to a deviationparameter describing a deviation between current productivity oraccuracy parameters of the current session and their historicalcounterparts.

In some embodiments, the audio songs are selected according to a textualtheme of non-musical content input via the business productivitysoftware.

In some embodiments, the audio songs are selected according to a contextparameter of the software use.

In some embodiments, it may be possible to utilize ‘feedbackinformation’ about online ambient music that was successful to configurein-store brick-and-motar systems for serving music.

Different embodiments relate to apparatus, systems and computer-readablemedium storing computer-code for carrying out any routine disclosedherein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1C describe views of an ecommerce website (Amazon.com®) (PRIORART).

FIGS. 2A-2C describe views of a branding website (PRIOR ART).

FIG. 3 describe views of a generic news article website (PRIOR ART).

FIGS. 4, 7-8, 11, 11A and 14 present flow charts of routines related tothe serving of music.

FIGS. 5-6, 9-10, 12-13 are block diagrams of apparatus related to theserving of music.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that thepresent invention may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well known methods, procedures, components and circuitshave not been described in detail so as not to obscure the presentinvention.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specificationdiscussions utilizing terms such as “processing”, “computing”,“calculating”, “determining”, or the like, refer to the action and/orprocesses of a computer or computing system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented asphysical, such as electronic, quantities within the computing system'sregisters and/or memories into other data similarly represented asphysical quantities within the computing system's memories, registers orother such information storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the present invention may include apparatuses forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the desired purposes, or it may comprise a generalpurpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computerprogram stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored ina computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, anytype of disk including floppy disks, flash memory, optical disks,CDROMs, magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs), electrically programmable read-only memories (EPROMs),electrically erasable and programmable read only memories (EEPROMs),magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions, and capable of being coupled to acomputer system bus. Anywhere in the description where a database isreferred to, the reference should be deemed to refer to any type of datastorage and may refer to storage in multiple locations.

The processes and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specializedapparatus to perform the desired method. The desired structure for avariety of these systems will appear from the description below. Inaddition, embodiments of the present invention are not described withreference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciatedthat a variety of programming languages may be used to implement theteachings of the inventions as described herein.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatus and techniquesfor providing background music in the context of an informational website (e.g. a branding website, an ecommerce website, a news website, ablog, or any other informational website) and/or a software application(e.g. a business productivity software application).

In contrast to ‘music listening software’ where a user may explicitlyrequest one or more songs or may explicit provide a local or onlinesoftware application with music taste data in order to listen to one ormore songs, the ‘background’ or ‘ambient’ or ‘business’ music may beserved to the user without any request for music. Furthermore, althoughthe listening pleasure of the user may certainly be a factor whenserving music to the user, the criteria used for selecting the songs mayalso reflect an ‘agenda’ that differs from the mere listening-pleasureof the user.

This is consistent with the concept of ‘background music’—the musicselection criteria applied by a restaurant or bank when selectingbackground music is necessarily different form the music selectioncriteria applied by a listener when s/he explicitly seeks to listen tomusic.

Thus, in one example, a proprietor of an ecommerce or informationweb-site may select songs according to their ability to obtain certaindesired behavior such as the purchasing products or services or thebrowsing of non-musical content on the website. In another example, abusiness productivity software application (e.g. a word processorapplication, spreadsheet application, integrated development environment(IDE) for writing computer code, bank software, etc) serves backgroundmusic in an attempt to cause the user to use the software moreproductively (e.g. type with fewer grammatical or spelling errors, writemore text, erase less text, etc). The desire to maximize sales and/or‘dwell time’ on web sites (i.e. the amount of time the user remains on aweb-site such as a branding site or an ecommerce site) and/or ‘futureclicks’ on the web site and/or productive usage of a business softwarepackage relate to ‘business objective functions’ which may imposeconstraints upon the selected songs that are not completely harmonizedwith (and may even contradict) the mere goal of the user's listeningpleasure.

As will be discussed below, the present inventor has found that servingthe music in accordance with a number of factors (in some embodiments,this may include various context parameter(s), user-specific parameters,business objection function, and/or one or more non-musical themes ofnon-musical visual content displayed on the website) is useful forpromoting non-musical products or services or brands and/or promotingproductive use of business software applications.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to ‘selection’ of songs froma database of songs that are served to the user as ambient or backgroundor business music. It is noted that usage of the proper selectioncriteria and the proper combination of selection criteria may mean thedifference between ‘naively’ or ‘robotically’ selecting songs whoseresult is far from optimal, and intelligently selecting songs thataccomplish the objective of obtaining the desired user-behavior of thebusiness objective function.

In the following section, a number of ‘decision criteria’ are explained‘in isolation’ (or nearly in isolation) from other decision criteria. Itis cautioned that the scenarios relating to the ‘isolated’ or‘nearly-isolated’ decision criteria may be oversimplified, and invarious embodiments, it is specifically the combination of several ormany factors which achieves the desired result. Nevertheless, for thesake or clarity, and as a heuristic, several ‘naïve scenarios’ relatingto isolated or small combinations of song-selection decision criteriaare now explained

Scenario 1 Related to Isolated Music-Selection Criteria (Certain VeryBasic Features)

A ‘wine store’ ecommerce or branding website sells wine from differentcountries. In this example, the wine website will be namedwww.verynicewine.com.

The wine store website includes navigation interface components thatallow the user to browse wines by country—for example, the user canselect that the website displays Spanish wines, Italian wines, Greekwines, French wines, Australian wines, etc.

In this non-limiting use case, when the user requests Greek wines, amatrix or list of Greek wines are displayed—for example, for eachparticular Greek wine of a plurality of Greek wines, a respectivepicture of the wine bottle and/or text description of the wine isdisplayed. Similarly, when the user requests French wines, the Frenchwines are displayed’ when the user requests Spanish wines, the Spanishwines are displayed, etc.

According to this use case, the servers of the branding or ecommerceweb-site cause the user's terminal to play Spanish music in response toa request to display Spanish wine; the servers of the branding orecommerce web-site cause the user's terminal to play French music inresponse to a request to display French wine, etc.

In some implementations, the user may request information about wines(or a certain type of wine) by sending a request via a computer network(e.g. the Internet). For example, the website might include one or morenavigation components for this purpose. Navigation components mayinclude (i) a text box where the can type in ‘Greek’ or ‘Italian’ or‘French’; (ii) some sort of graphical map of Europe where the user canclick onto a requested country; (iii) some sort of side-bar menu.

Scenario 2 Related to Isolated Music-Selection Criteria (A ContextFeature)

In this example, it is possible to determine how the user ‘entered thesite’ or ‘entered a sub-section of the site.’ For example, the websitewww.verynicewine.com may have purchased identical banner ads (i.e.directed to the site as a whole) on (i) an upscale gourmet cookingwebsite dedicated to fine food (www.gourmetfoodlovers.us); and (ii) ayouth-oriented website focusing on college students or recent graduates(www.youngadultsparty.com).

In a first situation, a user browsing www.gourmetfoodlovers.us clicks onthe banner add from www.verynicewine.com to enter the site. The userthen requests a list of Spanish wine. In a second situation, a userbrowsing www.youngadultsparty.com clicks on the banner add fromwww.verynicewine.com to enter the site. The user then requests a list ofSpanish wine. In both situations, the same list of Spanish wine may bedisplayed to the users, or different lists of Spanish wine may bedisplayed to the user.

In both situations, Spanish background music may be played after theuser requests display of Spanish wine products. However, knowledge aboutthe context of how the entered the site (www.verynicewine.com) may alsoinfluence the choice of background or ambient music ‘served’ to the userat the time that the list of Spanish wines are displayed.

For example, the user that entered from www.gourmetfoodlovers.us mayreceive classical Spanish music configured to play at relatively lowvolume. In contrast, the user that entered from www.youngadultsparty.commay receive loud Spanish rock-and-roll configured to play at relativelylow volume.

Another important context is the time, day of the week, date (holidays),etc., when the user begun his session.

Scenario 3 Related to Isolated Music-Selection Criteria (LearningSystem)

In this use case, it is possible for the system to track how varioussongs (or combinations of songs) may influence overall wine sales or theoverall amount of time spent on the website or the overall number of‘referrals’ or any other desired business goal.

In one non-limiting example, each song or list of songs may be assignedsome sort of effectiveness score.

For example, during a one-week period of time, five Spanish ‘candidatesongs’ (Song 1, Song 2, Song 3, Song 4 and Song 5) may be served tousers (i.e. either the overall population of users, or a sub-populationof users such as young users or old users or affluent users ormiddle-class users or any other sub-population) with equal frequencies.Initially, each song is played with a frequency of 20%.

Over time, it is possible to track the ‘effectiveness’ of each song bymeasuring how each song influences sales (i.e. sales in general or salesof a preferred item) and/or the browsing patterns of users.

In general, songs which tend to increase the sales level and/orincreases the amount of ‘dwell time’ on the site will receive a higherscore.

In response to the higher score, these songs may be ‘served’ to userswith a higher frequency. For example, if “Song 3” appears to ‘achievegood results,” the system may detect this result, and begin to serve“Song 3” to users at an elevated frequency.

Scenario 4 Related to Isolated Music-Selection Criteria (TrackingIndividual Users or Groups of Users)

According to ‘use case 4,’ it is possible to determine which users (i.e.either individual users or groups of users) are more influenced bycertain songs, and to adjust the frequency at which songs are served tousers accordingly.

Thus, in this use case, when each of the five ‘candidate songs’ areplayed, the resulting metrics (i.e. influence on sales or user surfinghabits or referrals or any other desired business goal) are measured notonly globally but also for specific groups.

In one example, it may be determined that while “Song 3” increasesoverall sales of Spanish wine in the general case, for the specific caseof users who entered the website via www.youngadultsparty.com, “Song 2”achieves results (i.e. in terms of sales or how long users surf the siteor any other business goal) that are superior to the results achievedwhen “Song 3” is served (i.e. in response to a request for the visualcontent and/or simultaneous with the presenting of the visual content).

In this use case, the initial song frequency distribution for both theoverall population of users (and also for the sub-population) is auniform distribution, with each song being played 20% of the time.However, after a certain amount of time, the system learns. After thisamount of time, “Song 3” may be served most frequently to the overallpopulation (i.e. simultaneous with and/or in response to a request for alist of wines—for example, Spanish wines) while “Song 2” may be servedmost frequently to the sub-population of users who entered the site viawww.youngadultsparty.com.

Scenario 5 Related to Isolated Music-Selection Criteria (Goals Achievedby Serving Songs)

Some songs may be identified as songs which are effective at increasing‘on-the-spot’ sales, but less effective at encouraging the user to spenda lot of time on the site. Others may have the opposite effect.

In one non-limiting example, certain fast songs with a ‘catchy tune’might encourage users to ‘close the deal’ and purchase more wine, whileother songs (for example, a slow, pleasant and sweet song) might notincrease sales at much but might encourage the users the spent more timeon the site.

Scenario 6 Related to Isolated Music-Selection Criteria (Business GoalVaries in Time or Per User or Per Group of Users)

Depending on a business goal, it may be possible to select songs toserve to users accordingly.

In one example, during a certain week, the inventory of wine held by thestore is relatively low. In this example, music which encourages usersto visit the site often and/or to browse the site for a long time may bepreferred over music which encourages ‘on-the-spot’ sales. Knowledge ofwhat music ‘encourages’ may be based upon historical records.

In another example, it may be determined that a certain user is not a‘big spender.’ However, this user might have a lot of Facebook® friendsor LinkedIn® connections. In this case, it might be preferred to servethis user songs which are known to encourage frequent visits to the siteand/or longer visits to the site in the hopes that this person caninfluence opinion in favor of the site.

In yet another example, the wine store may have an oversupply of Spanishwine and may wish to ‘unload’ the Spanish wine. In this case, the website may serve Spanish music even to users who browse through a list ofGreek Wines.

Thus, business goals (incorporated in music selection as ‘non-musicalbusiness objective functions—see element 318 of FIG. 6 and step S225 ofFIG. 7) may vary as a function of time and/or per user and/or per groupsof users.

Scenario 7 Related to Isolated Music-Selection Criteria (TrackingIndividual Users or Groups of Users)

It may be possible to track individual users or sub-populations of usersaccording any combination of criteria (i.e. at least 1 or at least 2 orat least 3 or at least 4 or all 5 of the following), including but notlimited to:

-   (i) the locality of the user—for example, certain songs may be more    effective at boosting sales from Midwestern users while other songs    may be more effective at boosting sales from East Coast users;-   (ii) the amount of time that a user spends on the site—for example,    users who tend to spend more time on the site may be served music    that is more specific to the types of products (i.e. Spanish vs.    Greek wine, price range, red vs. white) while users who visit less    frequently and/or come for shorter visits to the site might be    served music with a greater general popularity;    -   (iii) the use's behavior on the website—some users may be        identified as buyers, and other users may be identified as        browsers who do not buy.    -   (iv) Estimated demographic parameters—e.g. age, household        income, etc.    -   (v) Language used on users Terminal        Scenario 8 Related to Isolated Music-Selection Criteria        (Additional Context-Related features)

In one example, it may be possible to track the history of songs servedto a given user—either on the site itself (e.g. the wine site) orthrough a business partnership with other sites that may serve music.

In this example, it may be possible to serve songs in a manner thatavoids serving the same song too often within a period of time. Forexample, even if “Song 3” is known as effective for encouraging sales ofSpanish wine among the total population of users or among an ‘extremelyrelevant sub-population,’ if a particular user has heard “Song 3”recently, it may be preferred to serve a different song other than “Song3” to this user.

In another example, it may be possible to determine what sequences ofsongs achieve business goals (for example, browsing on the site and/orpurchase of non-musical products). For example, even if “Song 4” is notparticularly effective on its own, it may be determined that thesequence “Song 5 and then Song 4” is effective. In this case, if aparticular user had not recently heard “Song 5,” it may be preferred notto serve this user “Song 4.” However, if a particular user had indeedrecently heard “Song 5,” it may then be preferred to serve this user“Song 4.”

This concept of avoiding repeats may be applied on a number oflevels—for example, a per-user level, an overall population level or forany given sub-population.

DEFINITIONS

For convenience, in the context of the description herein, various termsare presented here. Other terms may be described and/or defined at otherlocations in the present disclosure. For terms defined here or anywhereand to the extent that definitions are provided, explicitly orimplicitly, here or elsewhere in this application, such definitions areunderstood to be consistent with the usage of the defined terms by thoseof skill in the pertinent art(s). Furthermore, such definitions are tobe construed in the broadest possible sense consistent with such usage.

The term ‘user terminal’ relates to any digital computing device—forexample, including a display screen (and/or video port) and/or a speaker(or audio port). In some embodiments, the user terminal (or terminaldevice) may be networked with other devices (for example, via a local orwide-area computing network such as a cellular telephone network orcircuit-switched network or packet-switched network or any othercomputer network) In other embodiments, the user terminal (or terminaldevice) may function, for the purposes of one or more teachingsdisclosed herein, as a ‘stand-alone’ device.

Examples of user terminals include but are not limited laptop computingdevices, desktop computing devices, tablet devices, mobile telephones(e.g. cellular phones), LCD touchscreen devices, and personal digitalassistants (PDA).

For the present disclosure, an ‘explicit music request’ is an explicitrequest to hear a piece of music. ‘Explicit music requests’ are oneexample ‘music-related requests’—for example, requests that have a clearconnection to music or describe music (i.e. either the request itself orthe combination of the request and its context is connected to music).For example, listing the name of an artist or music genre is one exampleof a ‘music-related request.’

In contrast to ‘music-related requests’ are ‘non-musical request’ whichdo not have a clear connection to music—for example, (i) a request to anews site to display a sports article about a baseball game or a newsarticle about international peace talks, (ii) or a request to anecommerce or branding site to display certain types of automotiveproducts or home improvement products or pets-related product oroffice-equipment products or other clearly non-musical products or (iii)a request to a travel site for hotel or flight or car-rentalinformation.

Similarly, visual data that is displayed may be musical or non-musical.An album cover or a picture of a musician (or band) or atext-description of a composer or genre of music may be considered‘musical visual content.’ Visual data that has no clear connection tomusic (for example, the content of the news article about the baseballgame, or a description of a home appliance, or a picture of afly-fisherman in the context of recreational services) may be considered‘non-musical visual content.’ One example of non-musical visual content(see FIGS. 1-2) is a description of non-musical products or services.

Ambient or ‘background’ or ‘business music’ is music provided inaccordance with and/or in the context of the display of visualnon-musical content. This music is usually served to a user for a‘non-musical’ business purpose—for example, in order to promote purchaseof a non-musical product and/or non-musical service and/or in order topromote exposure of the non-musical product and/or non-musical serviceand/or in order to promote a non-musical brand and/or in order topromote usage of a non-musical web-site or non-musical portion of a website. These business goals are ‘non-musical’ rather than for the purposeof promoting music or a related music product. This is analogous to thesupermarket or coffee shop or Walmart® store which may provide ambientor background music for the ‘non-musical business purpose’ of selling(or promoting) services or merchandise other than music-related servicesor merchandise. The ‘serving of a song’ or of a ‘music item’ relates tocausing the user terminal to play (i.e. either via an ‘onboard’ speakeror an audio port) the song or the music item. Any relevant operation(for example, decoding of digital audio content) may take place on theuser terminal itself and/or any other device. In one non-limitingexample of ‘serving music’ or ‘serving a song,’ digital audio content isstreamed to a user terminal via a computer network. In anothernon-limiting example of ‘serving music’ or ‘serving a song,’ a link todigital audio content is sent to a user's browser. In anothernon-limiting example of ‘serving music’ or ‘serving a song,’ audiocontent is pre-stored on the user terminal, and it is possible merely tosend an address or command or other data which ‘triggers’ the playbackof the pre-stored audio content.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the case where music isserved according to one or more (i.e. any combination of) ‘contextparameters’ (see 310 of FIG. 6; see S215 of FIG. 7). The term ‘contextparameter’ relates to the time-immediate or ‘real time’ situation inwhich the user is requesting and/or being served non-musical visualcontent. Ambient or business or background music may be served accordingto the context parameter.

The terms ‘ambient music’ and ‘business music’ and ‘background music’are used interchangeably and synonymously and relate to music served toa user for a ‘non-musical purpose’ much as ambient music is provided incoffee shops or supermarkets or banks. This is in contrast with‘user-requested music’ or music provided in the context of explicitlistening to music. The term ‘business music’ also relates to thebusiness purpose of the music—rather than relating exclusively to orprimarily the purpose of the user's listening pleasure, the businessmusic is typically a combination of (i) business goals of the web-siteproprietor or site owner or the user's boss (for the case of businessproductivity software); and (ii) the user's tastes or preferences onlyinasmuch as they advance the aforementioned business goals (forexample—promoting non-musical product or service or improving businessproductivity). Thus, the preferred song according to the business goalmight deviate from the preferred song according to the user's listeningtastes (though there may be some rough overlap or relation).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a routine for serving music according to someembodiments. It is appreciated that, as with all figures, not every step(or not every component) is required in every embodiments—furthermore,steps may be performed in an order different from what is explicitlydescribed in the figures (or accompanying text)—similarly, componentsmay be arranged in a manner different from what is explicitly describedin the figures (or accompanying text).

In step S101, a user-generated request for non-musical content isgenerated at the user terminal—for example, the user engages buttons ofa keyboard and/or a touch screen to indicate a request for some sort ofcontent. In another implementation, the request for content may beprovided via a user gesture (for example, detected by a camera) and/orby a voice command entered via a microphone. This user-generated requestmay, in some embodiments, be forwarded by the client device 1100A to oneor more servers 1100B (see FIG. 5). In another implementation, there isno need for inter-device communication, and everything may take placewithin a single device.

In step S105, in response to the user-generated request for non-musicalcontent, this non-musical visual content is made visible on the displayscreen of the user device. For example, an ecommerce site may displayrespective product descriptions for each product of a plurality ofnon-musical products. In another example, a newsite or blog may displayan article (e.g. requested article).

In one example, in step S101 the user requests news article content orblog content or information about one or more products or services. Forexample, the website might include one or more navigation components forthis purpose. Navigation components may include but are not limited totext boxes, menu components, checkboxes and the like.

In step S109, the user terminal plays background music—i.e. one or moreaudio songs. The playing of the background music may include selectionof the song(s) and/or volume parameter and/or song switch parameter(i.e. how often a song is switched from one song to another song, songtempo parameter, etc). One salient feature of steps S101-S105 is thatboth the user request as well as the response relate to “non-musicalcontent.” (see the definition about) For example, when the user requestsinformation about wine (or other food/beverage products) or about homeappliances or about garden products or about pet products or about toysor about health products or about sports products or about outdoorsproducts or about travel services it is clear that the user is notrelated to music.

In this sense, the music played on the user device in step S109 is atmost tangentially related to the non-musical visual content displayed—itis ‘ambient music’ or ‘background music.’

As noted in the earlier sections related to the various ‘decisionparameter scenarios,’ the decision about what songs to serve and/or inwhat order may be made in accordance with a number of factors. Inpractice, in many embodiments, this decision may be made according tothe combination of some or most or almost all or all of the followingparameters(s):

-   -   (i) one or more context parameters 310 (see the discussion above        and below);    -   (ii) user-specific identification data and/or sub-population        specific data 314—thus, in contrast to certain brick-and-mortar        establishments where background music is served to the        population as a whole that visits the store or a certain        location therein, in some embodiments of the present invention        it is possible to selectively ‘target’ specific background music        to specific users or to users exhibiting specific properties. In        some embodiments, multiple users who simultaneously visit the        ‘same location’ on a website (for example, in an electronic        store) are served different ambient music;    -   (iii) a static or dynamic business objective function 318 to be        optimized; and/or

(iv) a theme parameter of the website and/or the one or more non-musicalcontent items (e.g. descriptions of products or services) beingdisplayed on the user terminal according to visual content received fromthe website.

As noted above, the term ‘context parameter’ relates to thetime-immediate or ‘real time’ situation in which the user is requestingand/or being served non-musical visual content. Ambient or business orbackground music may be served according to the context parameter.

It is appreciated that there may be some overlap between certainelements of FIG. 6, and that element depicted as disjoint may notnecessarily be disjoint. For example, there may be some overlap between310 and 314.

Examples of context parameters 310 may include:

-   -   (i) overall context parameters (i.e. for the population as a        whole)—for example, is the current time/day a weekend or a        weekday, summer or winter, early morning or late at night; and    -   (ii) user-specific (or user sub-population specific) context        parameters (if known)—for example, when is the most recent time        the specific user visited the web-site relative to the ‘current        time,’ how long has the specific user been ‘on the site,’ how        did the user enter the site (i.e. from a general search engine        such as google or as a referral from a commercial partner, etc),        what was the ‘entry point’ of the user onto the website (for        example, it is possible instead of entering the ‘front door’/web        site portal, to enter to an ‘inner page’ or ‘deeper page’ of the        website—for example, a page displaying only one specific brand        freezer), how often does the user click during the current        session (this may give some indication of the state-of-mind of        the user), the etc. The context parameter may relate to        non-musical factors (e.g. when is the last time the user        purchased a certain non-musical item such as a household        appliance) as well as the musical factors (i.e. what is the        average tempo or genre(s) or artist(s) or song(s) of music        served to the user over the last 20 minutes).

In addition, certain historical data (i.e. including ‘older’ historythat is older than the ‘current session’—for example, by at least a fewhours or at least a few days or at least a few weeks or holder) may alsoplay a role (i.e. either purely historical data or informationdescribing a relationship between current-context parameters andhistorical data).

Element 314 relates to user-specific data (or data specific to asub-population) including:

-   -   (i) general historical information about or behavior patterns of        the user—does the specific user typically post comments to the        blog or only read the blog, how long has the specific user been        ‘on the site,’ what is the purchase history or browsing history        of the user, does the user typically bring ‘referals’ of other        users, etc.    -   (ii) demographic information about the user including age, sex,        ethnic group, individual or household income; (iii) ‘deviation’        parameters describing any deviation from what occurs in general        (i.e. historically) and the present context. One example of the        ‘deviation parameter’ relates to the case if the user typically        logs in from an Alabama location and is now logging in from the        North Eastern USA, this may influence song selection). In        another example, the user typically (i.e. according to        historical data—this may be the overall historical pattern or        some time-limited or otherwise limited historical pattern—for        example, weekend vs. weekday purchase habits) browses through        the ‘sporting good section’ of an ecommerce site, and the user        in the current session is on the ‘toy and baby section’ this may        influence the choice of song(s) served.

It is recognized that there may be simultaneous users on the web-site,even at the same ‘location’ on the website. In one example relating toblogs or news sites, the same users are viewing identical news storiesor identical blog content.

In one example related to ecommerce or branding web sites, differentusers on different devices user terminals may browse identical ornearly-identical lists of product or service items of an ecommerce—thus,they may be ‘in the same location in the on-line store.’ Nevertheless,due to the personalization features related to 314 (or personal elementsof other input factors of FIG. 6), multiple users at the ‘same location’be served different songs or sequences of songs at the same time.

Element 322 relates to a theme of the non-musical visual content that isdisplayed on the display screen of the user terminal device. In oneexample, if currently or previously displayed content or displayablecontent currently available on the webstie (i.e. either the content asspecific within the website or the content as it relates to the‘non-musical theme’ of the website as a whole) relates to householdappliances (either appliances in general or specific type of applicantsuch as an outdoor grill), the input parameter of 322 may relate tohousehold appliances or to the specific type of appliance.

In some embodiments, the overall theme of the website may be determinedat least in part based upon the overall content displayed within thewebsite or a portion thereof. For example, the theme of an online ‘wineshop’ may be different than the theme of an online ‘outdoors activitytravel agency’ and different ambient music may be served accordingly.Furthermore, not all wine shops may have the same themes. For example,an upscale wine shop may be associated with a different them from adiscount wine shop—for example, users communicating with the upscalewine shop may, on average, be served classical music more often thanusers communicating with the discount wine shop.

Conversely, users communicating with the discount wine shop may, onaverage, be served music with a faster tempo than users communicatingwith the discount wine shop.

Furthermore, the theme may vary within ‘different locations’ within agiven content site. In one example, the portion of a sporting goodsbranding site relating to baseball products may have a different themeinput 322 than a portion of the same sporting goods branding siterelating to ski products.

In some embodiments, the theme input 322 of FIG. 5 relates primarily tocertain visual content at the expense of other visual content. Forexample, referring to FIG. 3, it is clear that the ‘content weight’ ofthe primary content of the article text will exceed the content weight(if there is any influence whatsoever) of the banner ad or text ad orany other secondary content.

As will be discussed below, in many embodiments, the best results areachieved when a large number of ‘input music selection-influencingfactors’ (i.e. input to music serving/selection component 330) (i.e.different types of input music selection-influencing factors and/or manydifferent factors of specific types) are employed. In these embodiments,some sort of optimization model is used where each input factor isafforded a different ‘decision influencing weight.’ Thus, in someembodiments, visual content of the website in general, or visual contentof the primary display area has a greater influence on (or is afforded agreater weight when selecting music) music selection than the secondarycontent—the theme parameter(s) are governed by content other thandisplayed secondary content.

Element 318 relates to a ‘business objective function.’ For the presentdisclosure, a ‘non-musical business objective function ‘for selectingmusic is a function significantly governed by non-musical factors sothat music taste (i.e. the user's musical taste) is subservient to otherfactors. The term ‘non-musical’ relates to the fact that listening to orpurchase of or interacting with music is not the objective—instead, theambient music is just a tool for the higher objective of the businessobjective function. User taste or user pleasure plays a role only as itserves the higher purpose, and there are certainly scenarios where theselected song (or song sequence) due to the non-musical businessobjective function deviates from what would have been selected whenmusical considerations are primary or dominant.

These business-related ‘other factors’ of the non-musical businessfunction 318 may play a significant role in song selection and may evendominate the musical considerations.

One example of a ‘business objective function’ relates to optimizationof the expected amount of purchases of non-musical items (i.e. productsor services—these products or services are non-musical products and in acontext other than music) made by a user on the current web site or inany context as a direct or indirect result of the ambient music servedto the user. This may relate to the purchase of non-musical items (i.e.product or services) on the website as a whole, or the purchase ofnon-musical items that are ‘currently displayed’ at a time that theambient music is playing on the user terminal device, or the purchase ofnon-musical items that are related items of the website

In another example, the ‘business objective function’ may relate to anobjective to maximize future (user imminent or long-term future) ‘dwelltime’ (i.e. the amount of time the user spends on a site) on non-musicalportions of a website and/or to maximize user clicks or engagement ofnon-musical content items (e.g. descriptions of products or services,short text entries such as Twitter® entries, longer free text such asblog entries or news articles, etc).

In yet another example, the ‘business objective function’ may relate toan objective to maximize the chances that the user (or an associateduser) will provide a ‘referral’ to the website in the future—forexample, by clicking the ‘contact us’ link or by posting an onlinerecommendation of the website or its product(s) or service(s).

As noted above, there are situations where a song selected in order tooptimize the non-music business objective function would deviate from asong selected to primarily optimize the user's listening pleasure (orfor some other primarily musical goal such as the listening to moremusic or the purchase of a musical item such as an iTune® of the song).

For example, it may be known that a user (or user sub-population orestimated user sub-population) may prefer slow romantic ballads to musicwith a faster tempo. For example, Amazon.com® (or any other ecommercesite that sells but musical items and non-musical items) may posses dataindicating that user has historically frequently purchased album CD-Romsof ‘romantic ballads,’ and has either never purchased or has purchasedonly small quantities of faster more upbeat music with a faster tempo.Nevertheless, if the user is surfing a section of an online storeassociated with ‘impulse purchases,’ there may be an indication thatserving upbeat faster-tempo music may better serve the non-musicalbusiness goal of encouraging an impulse purchase of a non-musical item.For example, the user might have ordered a laptop and the online storemight attempt to sell the user a peripheral device such as a printer.Business-objective functions may relate to increasing site loyalty,increasing user brand awareness and increasing the user satisfactionfrom a web-site (for example, the users may be given questionnaires torate satisfaction). For the case of primarily-content sites (e.g. aboutnon-musical content—i.e. news sites, blogs, topic-specific sites (e.g.sites about gadgets, skiing, cycling, sailing, luxury cars, astrology,wines), the business objectives may relate to user loyalty (for example,measured numbers of users that repeat visit and/or the average repeatfrequency), reported use experience satisfaction, and user awareness ofthe ‘brand’ of the content site.

In accordance with element 314, it may be appropriate to specificallychose the background, ambient upbeat song also according to userspecific (or user sub-population specific data). For example, it ispossible that a known artist (i.e. BAND XYZ or SINGER LMN) is well-likedby the ‘romantic ballad community’ because he/she/they have producedboth slower romantic songs as well as more upbeat songs with a fastertempo. In this example, in accordance with both 318 and 314, the songselected may be (i) an upbeat song because in this case the goal is tomaximize 314 which is to bring about a ‘fast purchase’ of some sort ofpurchase item in a ‘short time window’; and (ii) nevertheless, a song bythe known artist that the user probably likes (i.e. BAND XYZ or SINGERLMN).

In FIG. 6, the music serving/selection component may effect one or moreof the following: (i) select a song or artist or genre or song sequenceof multiple songs of the same; (ii) select a song version (i.e. somesongs have shorter versions and longer remixes); (iii) select an initialsong volume (i.e. non-zero volume—obviously, the song would be audible);and (iv) effect a song switch action.

As for (iv), it may be possible that entire songs are usually served tothe user—however, in some situations (for example, it seems like theuser is not carrying out the desired ‘impulse purchase’) it may bepossible to stop a song before its completion (for example, after atleast one third or one half of the song has played), to ‘switch thesong’ and to serve a new song. These ‘music serving operation(s) areidentified in FIG. 6 as element 340.

It is appreciated that as with any component disclosed herein, the musicserving/selection component(s) may include any combination of hardwareand computer-readable code, and may be either provided locally ordistributed across a local or wide-area computer network. In onenon-limiting example, one or more of these components reside on theserver(s) 110B.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a routine for serving music (i.e. a song, or asequence of songs) to a user in accordance with some embodiments. Aswith any routine or method disclosed herein, there is no requirement tocarry out every step in every embodiment—furthermore, the order ismerely one example, and the skilled artisan will certainly appreciatethat other step orders are possible.

Any step of FIG. 7 may be carried out in any location of combination oflocation(s) and/or at any time.

In step S211, one or more visual content theme parameter(s) (see 322 ofFIG. 6) are determined (see the discussion above relating to element 322of FIG. 6).

In step S215, one or more context parameter(s) are determined (see thediscussion above relating to element 310 of FIG. 6). In step S219, oneor more individual user properties or user sub-population are identified(see the discussion above relating to element 314 of FIG. 6).

In step S215, one or more context parameter(s) are determined (see thediscussion above relating to element 310 of FIG. 6).

In step S225, one or more non-musical business objective function(s) maybe determined. As discussed to a certain extent (see the earlierdiscussion in the section entitled “Scenario 6 Related to IsolatedMusic-Selection Criteria”) the business objective function is notnecessarily static but may dynamically change according to user, usersub-population, time or any other relevant factor.

Sometimes selection of the particular non-musical business objectivefunction may be carried out according to any element 310, 314 and/or322. In some embodiments, it may change according to a ‘value’attributed to this function or according to a chance of successfullyachieving the objective. Thus, for certain users who may be written offas a ‘lost cause’ as far as on-site purchase is concerned, it may beadvantageous to focus on maximizing a likelihood of a greater extent ofuser browsing or surfing non-musical content even at the expense of anychance of increasing the likelihood of purchase of the non-musical item.

Throughout the previous discussions (for example, related to FIGS. 6-7or any other figures), it is noted that the combination and number ofparticular scenarios is myriad, —there may be many different categoriesof users having profiles that may include subtle differences, and manydifferent types of or combinations of visual content theme(s) and/ormany different context parameters. Furthermore, the potential businessgoals may include business goals that contradict each other at leastsome of the time—for example, the goal of inducing an ‘impulse purchase’may, sometimes and for at least some users, contradict the goal ofinducing longer ‘dwell times’ or ‘surf times’ on the website.

Furthermore, the behavior of some users may influence the behavior ofother users through referrals or social network and the like. As such,in step S229, it may be advantageous to effect one or more globaloptimization techniques. For example, (i) in some situations it may bepreferable to sacrifice an impulse purchase for longer-term goals; (ii)in other situations, it may be preferable to attempt to achieve theimpulse purchase (or other immediate ‘achievement’) even at the expenseof the longer-term situation.

In addition, in different situations, different factors may be weightedagainst each other—for example, one use case may related to aleisure-oriented user who has purchased numerous non-musical leisureproducts or items (e.g. flights to the Carribean, tickets to sportingevents, junk-food items, etc). Thus, according to element 314, it mightbe preferable to serve more upbeat music. On the other hand, if thisuser logs in at a time when leisure products are traditionally notpurchased (for example, 7:45 AM on a Monday in the middle of Novemberwhen the weather is chilly and rainy), it might be advantageous to servethe music slower music to encourage greater browsing or purchase ofother products.

In this case, the input parameters of FIG. 6 may contradict each other.Indeed, as the number of distinct input parameters increases (to atleast 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 or more), the likelihood of ‘contradictinginput parameters’ may increase. In some embodiments, in step S229 (toobtain 340 of FIG. 6), it is possible to utilized some sort ofstatistical and/or heuristic and/or global optimization model in orderto handle there types of situations. Possible techniques include but arenot limited to:

Possible optimization techniques (i.e. based on large-scale quantitiesof training data’ and/or based on ‘global considerations’ sometimes atthe expense of more local considerations) include but are not limited toexpert system based techniques, neural networks, Markov models, decisiontrees, heuristic methods, liner and non-linear programming methodsand/or adaptive search techniques (e.g. simulated annealing or geneticalgorithms).

These optimization techniques may be resolve situations of‘contradicting inputs to 330’ or contradicting combinations of the same.

FIG. 8 relates to a routine for ‘iterative/learning’ routine for servingmusic in some embodiments of the present invention. In step S511,ambient music (i.e. a sequence of one or more songs) is served to a useraccording to a current large-scale statistical model. In step S515, ispossible to observe the user's behavior and how the user reacts to thesituation where ambient music is served. In another example relating tostep S515, it is possible to serve different types of users or groups ofusers. Thus, step S515 may relate to observing the behavior (e.g.surfing behavior of non-musical items or the purchase behavior ofnon-musical items or any combination thereof) of the user(s)—individualusers or sub-populations of users or the overall user population.

The ‘metric used’ for observing such behavior may relate to one or moreof the non-musical business objective functions.

In step S519, it is possible to update the model for serving ambientmusic in accordance with the observations of step S515. Thus, steps S515and S519 may relate to training large-scale statistical-based decisionmodels for selecting ambient music to serve to user(s).

Once again, is noted that in the context of large numbers of inputparameters or large number of users (or user group) or large numbers ofcontext scenarios and/or theme scenarios, the number of combinations ismyriad. Thus, in many embodiments, step S519 is much more complicatedthan a simple pronouncing that ‘the newest Brittany Spears release’encourages people to by more clothes.

Instead, it is possible to make subtle ‘tweaks’ to complicatedlarge-scale statistical models which change the overall behavior onlyslightly either for a given user or for a given sub-population of usersor for the overall population of all users and/or for certain context(s)or visual content.

In step S511, it is possible to respond to the changing of thelarge-scale statistical model by utilizing the updated large-scalestatistical model.

It is noted that as number of techniques may be carried out in thecontext of step S511-S519:

(i) in step S511, it is possible to intentionally serve (for example, atonly somewhat frequent intervals) to a user or sub-population or usersor all users a sub-optimal song or series of songs (e.g. from asub-optimal artist or a sub-optimal tempo or from a sub-optimal genre)in order to ‘probe’ how the user(s) react in step S515. For example,when the user browses the Spanish winelist, and previous data indicatesthat Spanish music is superior to Greek music for optimizing a non-musicbusiness objective function related to purchase of Spanish wine, it maynevertheless be advantageous (i.e. at some frequency) in step S511 tocause the user's client terminal device to play the Greek song. Forexample, there may be a new Greek song recently released, and it may beadvantageous to ‘try’ this song (i.e. despite indications that this songwill not be successful) in order to attempt to see if surprising resultscan be obtained. In the event that the results are as expected, then themodel may be left alone or merely updated in accordance with theexpected (i.e. not to significantly modify the model). Nevertheless, inmany situations, the songs which succeed in achieving the non-musicalbusiness goals are specifically the ones that according to previousindications, are less likely to success and/or more likely to fail (ii)in one implementation of step S515, it is possible to compare behaviorof two groups—a music-served group served a candidate song or sequenceof songs with a ‘placebo group’ that is served more conventional musicor only served soft music or not served any ambient music (i.e.substantially silent user terminal).

Discussion of a Computer (FIG. 9)

FIG. 9 is a non-limiting example of a digital computer including memory(volatile or non-volatile 1160, a process 1180 stored in memory, amicroprocessor 1120, non-volatile storage 1140, peripheral devices 1130,a wired or wireless network interface 1150. It is appreciate thatmodification may be made and not every component is required in everyembodiment.

A Second Discussion of FIGS. 6-8: Ambient music for SoftwareApplications Although the majority examples of the present disclosuredocuments relate specifically to the case of non-music content ofecommerce and/or branding and/or informational and/or content, variousteachings of the present invention may relate to utilizing background orambient music in the context of business software applications—e.g. inthis case, the ‘business objective functions’ 318 of FIG. 6 may relateto increasing user producing while using the software and/or reducingthe number of mistakes. In one use case, when using a microprocessor(e.g. MS-Word), some goals or sub-goals of the ‘business objectivefunctions’ 318 may relate to increasing the number of typed charactersper minute, decreasing the number of typographic mistakes, decreasingthe frequencies where users may need to take breaks, etc.

For banking software or spreadsheet software, the ‘business objectivefunctions’ 318 may relate to increasing the number of graphs produces orcalculations made or business data (e.g. financial data) processed.

Other examples relate to ‘software utilities’ or to products forcomputer programmers—for example, Database Administrator (DBA) dashboardutilities, registry tweakers, Zip file utilities, etc.

The business productivity software may reside locally or may remotely(for example, like Google® Apps®).

Thus, in one example, if a user is known to enjoy ‘Pink Floyd music,’and if a user has an average typing rate over the past several weeks,then slower Pink Floyd songs are selected when the user types fasterthan his/her average rate to encourage accuracy, while faster slowerPink Floyd songs are selected when the user types ‘too slowly’ toencourage greater productivity.

In another example, a user may be ‘rewarded’ for fast typing with a songthat s/he particularly likes (Pavlov's dog effect).

The music may also be related to the theme 322 of the non-musical‘business’ text typed—if the text to be typed is non-musical free prosewhere mistakes are not that critical, faster tempo music may be played.Of course, it is possible to carry out text analyses of the typed text(i.e. free pros where mistakes are less critical vs. legal text wheremistakes are critical) using natural language processing computationaltools, and then to respond to the results of the analyses by servingmusic accordingly.

In some embodiments, context parameters may be used—for example, what isthe time of the day, how many days are left until a big corporatedeadline, what is the rank (or number of years of experience) of thebusiness software user within the company, etc.

Embodiments of the present invention is a method, system and associatedsoftware components for providing an appliance, a networked applianceand/or an application running on a networked appliance with one or moresensory stimulation parameters comprising: a. a sensory stimulationdevice; b. processing circuitry adapted to provide the device withsensory stimulation parameters based on situational parameters,including static situational parameters and variable situationalparameters; and c.a software module adapted to monitor the performanceof said processing circuitry and further adapted to improve theoperation of said processing circuitry.

FIG. 10 shows a functional block diagram of an exemplary system forproviding sensory stimulation parameters, according to some embodimentsof the present invention;

FIGS. 11, 11A & 14 show flowcharts that include steps of the operationof an exemplary system for providing sensory stimulation parameters,according to some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 12 shows a network diagram of an exemplary system for providingsensory stimulation parameters. Shown are exemplary relations betweendifferent end points (e.g. web browser, application, appliance), SSM,SFM, environmental sensors and Setup running on an application serverand a web-browser, all according to some embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIG. 13 shows a functional network diagram of an exemplary system forproviding audio content. Shown are exemplary relations between theweb-browser, an audio streaming server, an ASM, an ASF, and a Setuprunning on an application server, all according to some embodiments ofthe present invention.

It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration,elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale.For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggeratedrelative to other elements for clarity. Further, where consideredappropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures toindicate corresponding or analogous elements.

Embodiments relate to a method, system and associated softwarecomponents for providing an appliance, a networked appliance, anapplication running on a networked appliance (e.g. computer, computerbrowser, set-top box, cell phones, etc.), a non-networked applicationand/or a non-networked appliance (e.g. oven, sweeper, watch, applicationon non-networked computer, etc.), with one or more sensory stimulationparameters (e.g. background music, color scheme, images, videos, scent,layout design, physical form, vibrations, etc.) to be used by theappliance and/or the application. According to some embodiments of thepresent invention, there may be provided a Stimulation Selection Module(SSM), residing and/or running on a computational platform (e.g.computer, chipset), which SSM may be adapted to provide an applicationand/or appliance with sensory stimulation parameters. The SSM mayinclude selection logic which may factor in one or more situationalparameters, including variable situational parameters and/or staticsituational parameters, when selecting sensory stimulation parameters tobe provided to the appliance and/or the application. Variablesituational parameters may include parameters which may changedynamically and may be categorized into usage parameters, environmentalparameters and/or user specific parameters. The usage parametersfactored in by the selection logic may include parameters such as: (1)the current type of usage pattern/sequence of the application/appliance,(2) the current content being displayed by the application/appliance,(3) the current application/appliance theme, (4) the currentapplication/appliance layout and design scheme, (5) the duration of thecurrent session of use of the application/appliance and/or (6) any otherparameter relating to the specific usage of the application/apparatus.The environmental parameters factored in by the selection logic mayinclude parameters such as: (1) the time, (2) the date, (3) the day ofthe week, (4) if it Is a weekend or holiday, (5) the weather conditionsat the local where the application/appliance is being used, (6) thelevel and/or type of other sounds that can be heard at the local wherethe application/appliance is being used, (7) the level and/or type ofother scents/smells that can be sensed at the local where theapplication/appliance is being used, (8) the level and/or type of lightthat can be seen at the local where the application/appliance is beingused, (9) other appliances and/or applications operating at the localwhere the application/appliance is being used. (10) any other parameterrelating to environmental conditions surrounding theapplication/appliance. The user specific parameters factored in by theselection logic may include parameters such as: (1) the time of day andday of the week at a location associated with the user's IP address, (2)demographic data associated with the location associated with the user'sIP address (3) languages associated with the location of the user's IPaddress (4) data relating to the specific user and/or their pastactivities, (5) the specific user's usage pattern/sequence of theapplication/appliance, (6) user explicit and/or implicit preferenceinput (from the current application/appliance or from external sources(e.g. other applications and/or appliances the user may have used),and/or (7) any other parameter relating to the specific user of theapplication/appliance.

Static situational parameters may include parameters which may bepredefined by the application/appliance designer, operator, installer,user, and/or owner and may include parameters such as: (1) theapplication's/appliance's target demographics, (2) theapplication's/appliance's target market and the category within themarket of products/services targeted, (3) the application's/appliance'stypical usage (e.g. interactive, passive, reading, purchasing, etc.),(4) values, colors, images, sounds, and/or smells that the company thatowns and/or markets the application/appliance would like users toassociate with the appliance/application and/or content presented by theapplication/appliance (e.g. the Coca Cola company would like toassociate the color red with values and sounds of freshness and fun toany application/appliance that is associated with it) (5) theapplication's/appliance's market positioning and uniqueness (6) theapplication's/appliance's name (7) fixed sensual parameters (color,images, smell, sound, design, layout, etc.) pre-installed in theapplication/appliance, (8) the apriori average usage time and pattern ofthe application/appliance, (9) the desired mood and ambience (10) thegoals of the application/appliance and/or the stimulation (11) operatorinputs and/or preferences and/or (12) any other parameter related to theapplication's/appliance's purpose relevant to the selection of sensorystimulation parameters.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, there may beprovided one or more Sensory Stimulation Devices (SSD's) (e.g. displays,speakers, etc.). The one or more SSD's may be adapted to stimulate oneor more of the human senses. According to some embodiments of thepresent invention, the SSD's may be integral with theapplication/appliance and/or may be external devices.

According to some further embodiments of the present invention, based onthe output of the selection logic (i.e. indication of selected sensorystimulations), the SSM may, directly, through a Stimulation ControlModule (SCM) and/or using a third party service, upload, stream and/orotherwise provide the stimulation parameters to the SSD's. The SCM maycontrol the SSD's through drivers, API's, controllers and/or throughother devices functionally associated with the appliance/application.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, there may beprovided a Stimulation Feedback Module (SFM) functionally associatedwith the Stimulation

Selection Module, which SFM may reside and/or run on a computationalplatform (e.g. computer, chipset). The SFM may, intermittently orsubstantially continuously, receive performance parameters and/orsignificant changes in situational parameters from one or moreEnvironmental Sensor Modules (ESM's), which ESM's may measuresituational parameters for one or more applications and/or appliances.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the ESM's mayreceive data relating to situational parameters from one or moresensors, which sensors may be integral with the application/applianceand/or may be external devices. The sensors may include cameras,proximity detectors, microphones, odor sensors, keyloggers and/or anyother sensor known today or that will be devised in the future, thatcollects data relating to situational parameters.

The SFM may receive performance parameters and/or any significant changein the situational parameters from ESM's relating to one or moreapplications and/or appliances. The SFM may analyze the performanceparameters and/or any significant change in the situational parameters,accordingly monitoring the SSM's performance and may consequentlyimprove its performance. According to some embodiments of the presentinvention the SFM may store in a database the data relating to theperformance of the SSM under the situational parameters and may changedecision rules. The stored information may be used by the SSM to improveits performance. The SFM may use algorithms and methods that are similarto those of the selection logic and may add and/or change rules,weights, parameters and/or methods that serve the selection logic and/orthe SFM itself. According to some embodiments of the present invention,following significant changes in the situational parameters, the SFM mayactuate the SSM to generate new sensory stimulation parameters under thechanged situational parameters.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the SSM mayinclude selection logic that may be based on dynamic and/or adaptivealgorithms based on rules. Initially, a setup process may determine apossible range of values for the static situational parameters and mayfurther determine initial values of the variable situational parameters.According to further embodiments of the present invention, The ESM may,for every session, usage, and/or other operation determine initialvalues of the variable situational parameters. According to someembodiments of the present invention, the variable situationalparameters may vary in each session, usage and/or other relevantoperation, whereas the static situational parameters may be determinedand stay constant for longer periods of time (e.g. at first timeinstallation, once a year, after a major change, and/or at specificapplication/appliance owner request).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the selectionlogic may determine the sensory stimulation parameters using thefollowing algorithm. In principle the selection logic may choose a setof stimulation parameters (S1, S2, S3, . . . ) that will maximize thegoals (hence: business value) of the application/appliance owner and/orthe user under the current context of variable situational parameters,while complying to constraints (c1, c2, c3, . . . ). The algorithm mayfunction as follows: (1) use one or more ESM's to measure the variablesituational parameters; (2) scan all stimulation parameter combinationsand choose the combination of sensory stimulation parameters (S1, S2,S3, . . . ) that comply to constraints (c1, c2, c3, . . . ) and have themaximum business value under similar situational parameters; (3) use oneor more ESM's to measure the new (post stimulation of step (2))situational parameters, and assign the de facto, new business valueunder the new situational parameters to the combination (S1, S2, S3, . .. ) chosen in step (2).

For example (S1, S2, . . . ) could be lists of songs to be played on atourist's cruise website. The constraints may be: (c1) play songs in thelanguage prominent in the location of the user, (c2) Play songs with atempo of N1 BPM (Beats Per Minute) to N2 BPM (because this was concludedfrom the hour of the day and/or site owner brand values/request), (c3)genre of music should be Jazz or classic (concluded from site ownerbrand values), etc. The site is an informational site so the businessgoal may be to maximize the staying time of the user at the site and/orincrease the site's brand values.

For each chosen (S1, S2, . . . ) play list, the ESM may measure theactual staying time under the values of all situational variableparameters (e.g. section the user visited on the site, other backgroundsounds). The results are transferred to the SFM which updates the rulebase and/or add a statistical records that indicate that the chosen (S1,S2, . . . ) play list, under the values of the situational parameter(static and variable) achieved the measured staying time (N seconds),such that the next operation of the selection logic will bring betterresults.

According to some further embodiments of the present invention, theselection logic may try to optimize the runtime and/or the results ofthe selection process of sensory stimulation parameters by using one ormore optimization methods for choosing the preferred sensory stimulationparameters from some a set of available alternatives. Some optimizationmethods may include expert system based techniques, heuristic methods,liner and non-linear programming methods and/or adaptive searchtechniques.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, there may beprovided a Setup Module residing and/or running on a computationalplatform (e.g. computer, chip set). The Setup Module may be adapted todetermine and assign initial values (setup values) to static situationalparameters and/or variable situational parameters to be factored in bythe selection logic. According to further embodiments of the presentinvention, the setup module may collect data relating to the specificimplementation of the SSM and accordingly determine and assign initialvalues to the situational parameters to be factored in by the specificselection logic associated with the specific SSM in question. Thecollected data may include: an interview, an interactive computationalprocess (e.g. questionnaire), relevant data retrieval from externaldatabases, interrogation process of appliance/application to extractsensory parameters capabilities and/or related built-in attributes orfeatures, data from sensors, technical and semantical structure of theappliance/application, technical implementation methods or tools used bythe appliance/application, outgoing and ingoing links from theappliance/application to other related appliances/applications, existingdatabase records and analysis of the application/appliance, explicitand/or implicit deductions from similar appliance/applications, defacto, past users behavior and/or environmental measurements. The Setupmodule may use some of the algorithmic methods that are used by the SSMin order to calculate and optimize the initial values assigned to thesituational parameters.

It should to be clear to one of skill in the art that the designation ofthe different described modules (e.g. SSM, SFM, DCM, ESM, Setup, etc.)is arbitrary and that any function performed by one may be performed byanother. It should also be understood by one of skill in the art thatthe functionality attributed to any two or more modules may beintegrated into a single module. Conversely, the functionality of anyone module may be split into two or more separate components. It shouldalso be understood by one of skill in the art that each module may beimplemented as one or more different software components, some of whichmay be running on the application/appliance and some of which may berunning on a remote networked application, server and/or appliance.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, where thesensory stimulation parameters are audio content (e.g. music, sounds),the Stimulation Selection module (SSM) may be referred to as an AudioSelection Module (ASM). According to some embodiments of the presentinvention, where the networked appliance is a computational platformrunning a web-browser, the ASM may be functionally associated with awebsite accessed by a web-browser. Accordingly, some embodiments of thepresent invention may include methods, systems and associated softwarecomponents for providing website audio content (e.g. one or more musicclips that may be mixed into a play list and/or one, combined, audiofootage). The ASM may reside and/or run on a computational platform(e.g. computer) functionally associated with a server of the website.The ASM may include selection logic which may factor in one or morevariable situational parameters and/or static situational parameterswhen selecting audio content to be played on the website. Variablesituational parameters may include parameters which may changedynamically and may be categorized into site specific parameters,environmental parameters and/or user specific parameters. The sitespecific parameters factored in by the selection logic may includeparameters such as: (1) the current context and/or content displayed onthe website, (2) the website's theme, (3) the website's layout, (4) thewebsite's color, images, videos and design scheme, (5) thepattern/sequence in which the user navigated through the website (e.g.from what page and/or context the user arrived to the current pageand/or status), (6) the duration of the current session on the websiteand/or (7) any other parameter relating to the website relevant to audiocontent selection. The environmental parameters factored in by theselection logic may include parameters such as: (1) the time, (2) thedate, (3) the day of the week, (4) if it is a weekend or holiday, (5)the sounds being emitted from other applications running on the user'sdevice, (6) other applications running on the user's device and/or (7)any other parameter relating to the user's environment relevant to audiocontent selection. The user specific parameters factored in by theselection logic may include parameters such as: (1) the time of day andday of the week at the local from which the user is accessing the website (may be determined according to the location associated with theuser's IP address or otherwise), (2) demographic data relating to thespecific user (may be determined according to the location associatedwith the user's IP address or otherwise). (3) languages associated withthe specific user (may be determined according to the locationassociated with the user's IP address or otherwise), (4) data relatingto the specific user and/or his/her past activity on the system (e.g.repeat user? type of browser the user is employing?, usage patterns,etc.), (5) the user's current pattern/sequence of application/siteactivities, (6) the user's explicit and/or implicit preferences and/orinputs (from the current site or from external sources (e.g. othersites, other applications) and/or (7) any other parameter relating tothe specific user relevant to audio content selection. Staticsituational parameters may include parameters which may be predefinedexplicitly or implicitly by the website's designer, operator, installer,user, and/or owner and may include parameters such as (1) the website'sbusiness goals, (2) the website's target demographics, (3) the website'starget market and the category within the market of products/servicestargeted, (4) the website's typical usage (e.g. interactive, passive,reading, purchasing, etc.), (5) values, colors, images, videos, sounds,smells that the website owner would like users to associate with thecontent of the website (e.g. the Coca Cola company would like toassociate the color red with values and sounds of freshness and fun toany object in their site), (6) the website's market positioning anduniqueness (7) the website's name and/or slogan (8) the apriori averageusage time and pattern of the website, (9) the desired mood andambience, (10) the goals for which the audio content is being selected(11) the sounds, images, videos, colors and other ambience parametersused on other venues associated with the website (e.g. the companyoffices, stores, advertisements, competitors websites, etc.) (11)operator inputs and/or preferences and/or (12) any other parameterrelated to the website's purpose relevant to the selection of audiocontent.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, there may beprovided a Stimulation Feedback Module (SFM) functionally associatedwith the ASM, which ASM may reside and/or run on a computationalplatform (e.g. computer, chipset). The SFM may, intermittently orsubstantially continuously, receive performance parameters and/orsignificant changes in situational parameters from one or moreEnvironmental

Sensor Modules (ESM's), which ESM's may collect and measure variablesituational parameters for one or more websites. The SFM may receiveperformance parameters and/or any significant changes in the situationalparameters from ESM's relating to one or more websites.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the ESM's mayreceive data relating to situational parameters from one or moresensors, which sensors may be integral with the website and/or may beexternal devices. The sensors may include cameras, proximity detectors,microphones, odor sensors, keyloggers and/or any other sensor knowntoday or that will be devised in the future, that collects data relatingto situational parameters.

The SFM may analyze the performance parameters and/or any significantchange in the situational parameters, accordingly monitoring the ASM'sperformance and may consequently improve its performance. According tosome embodiments of the present invention the SFM may store in adatabase the reported performance stimulation parameters under thesituational parameters and may accordingly change decision rules. Thestored information may be used by the ASM to improve its performance.The SFM may use algorithms and methods that are similar to those of theselection logic and may add and/or change rules, weights, templatesand/or methods that serve the selection logic and/or the SFM itself.According to some embodiments of the present invention, followingsignificant changes in the situational parameters, the SFM may actuatethe ASM to generate new stimulation parameters under the changedsituational parameters.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the ASM mayinclude selection logic that may be based on dynamic algorithms based onrules. Initially, a setup process may determine a possible range ofvalues for the static situational parameters and may further determineinitial values of the variable situational parameters. According tofurther embodiments of the present invention, The ESM may, for everysession, usage, and/or other operation determine initial values of thevariable situational parameters. According to some embodiments of thepresent invention, the selection logic may determine the audio contentusing the following algorithm. In principle the selection logic maychoose a set of audio clips (S1, S2, S3, . . . ) that will maximize thegoals (hence: business value) of the application/appliance owner and/orthe user under the current context of variable situational parameters,while complying to constraints (c1, c2, c3, . . . ). The algorithm mayfunction as follows: (1) use one or more

ESM's to measure the variable situational parameters; (2) scan all audioclip combinations and choose the combination of audio clips (S1, S2, S3,. . . ) that comply to constraints (c1, c2, c3, . . . ) and have themaximum business value under the same situational parameters; (3) useone or more ESM's to measure the new (post stimulation of step (2))variable situational parameters, and assign the de facto, new businessvalue under the new situational parameters to the combination (S1, S2,S3, . . . ) chosen in step (2).

For example, we will demonstrate the process of using the system toprovide audio stimulation for the website of the well known RoyalCaribbean cruises, located at http://www.royalcaribbean.com/. Thisexample does not demonstrate the full comprehensive process, but gives asimplified version in order to further elucidate the current invention.As part of the SETUP process, performed by the setup module, the siteowner may be interviewed, using an interactive, online questionnaire inorder to determine situational parameters. Examples of possiblequestions may be: What are the socio-demographic characteristics of yourcustomers?, what are your brand's main values?, what is unique aboutyour products?, what countries your customers come from?, what existingcolors, audio and other ambience elements are you already using?, whatare your company's main goals and what are the goals of your site?, Whatkind of ambience you would like to be associated with (prestigious,popular, stylish, fresh, young,)?, what is the current average spenttime at the site?, how many repeat users do you have and what is theirrepetition pattern?, special event?, dates?, etc. Following thequestionnaire, there is a straight forward logic at the setup processthat determines some of the situation parameters and their possiblerange of values. Let's assume in our example that analyzing thequestionnaire the system concluded that (1) the Music genre will be Jazzor Chill-out (this is because the site is in the category of luxuryvacations/tourism and targets ages of over 50 and already uses a lot ofthis music on its ships), (2) BPM will be slow at 75-100 from 6 AM till4 PM (user's local time) and for the rest of the day faster at 100-135BPM, (3) tracks maximum length will be 3 minutes (because today's usersspend under 5 minutes at the site and we would like to have at least 2almost full clips), (4) May use songs with lyrics in English or in thelanguage of the origin country of the specific website user (becausemost of the targeted audience is from the US or Anglo-saxon countries),and (5) the business goal is to generate audio ambience that willmaximize the time users spend on the site. An ESM may be implemented asa software component (e.g. Java script, Flash component) that isembedded within the web page that is served to the user and renderedusing a web browser. When a user enters the site, the ESM, may receivefrom the web browser details regarding the user's IP address (from whichwe can infer, in very high probability, the local time, date, country,the user's language, etc.) Using a browser cookie or Flash local objectmechanism, the ESM can get information whether this is a repeat user andsome past information regarding the specific user. The ESM willdetermine these variable situational parameters and will actuate theASM. The ASM will use the selection logic to generate the optimal playlist. The Selection logic will first query the audio database forpossible audio clips that comply with the situational variable'spossible values (genre=Jazz or Chill-out, BPM will be 75-100 BPM(assuming user's local time is morning hours), Lyrics=English or Hindi(assuming user's IP indicates he is surfing from India, etc).Afterwards, the selection logic will choose the play list thatstatistically, on average, generates the longest spent time at the siteby using the databases that contain performance results from previoususage of play lists from this site and others. In the case that thereare too many combinations to consider, the selection logic may usealgorithms (described above) that can generate optimal results inrelative low runtime. Following that, the selected play list is streamedto the user (using the site's web server or using a third party server)using the audio player which is a software component (actuallyimplemented as a combined component with the ESM), that is embeddedwithin the webpage and can play music using the user's speakers. The ESMcontinuously monitors the user's behavior within the site. If asignificant event happens (e.g. user indicated, using a special controlon the audio player component, he would like a different genre/playlist, user has stayed longer than the average time and the play list isabout to end, user stopped the music (using a control on the audioplayer component)), then the ESM will notify the SFM and send the SFMthe full event details and the value of all situational parameters. TheSFM will update the central database with the de facto performance ofthe chosen play list under the situational parameters (e.g. Using theplay list that contains song#7, song#19 and song#11 the user stayed atthe site for 247 seconds when the user was from England, used thewebsite at 11:25 AM, used English language, etc.). If needed the SFMwill actuate the ASM in order to generate a new, revised play list (e.g.the current play list about to end) that will give optimal results forthe new situational parameters (e.g. if a user wanted a different playlist, the SSM will choose candidates that are from a different genre andmusic clips from the previously played).

According to some embodiments of the present invention the selectionlogic may try to optimize the runtime of the selection process of audiocontent by using one or more optimization methods for choosing thepreferred audio content from some a set of available alternatives. Someoptimization methods may include expert system based techniques,heuristic methods, liner and non-linear programming methods and/oradaptive search techniques.

According to some further embodiments of the present invention, theremay be provided an Audio player, running within the web browser orapplication. The Audio player may receive directly from the ASM pointersto one or more selected audio content to be played on the website. TheAudio player may use the browser or a third party application within thebrowser or a third party stand-alone application to play the selectedaudio content.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, there may beprovided a Setup Module residing and/or running on a computationalplatform (e.g. computer, chipset). The Setup Module may be adapted todetermine and assign initial values (setup values) to static situationalparameters and/or variable situational parameters to be factored in bythe selection logic. According to further embodiments of the presentinvention, the setup module may collect data relating to the specificimplementation of the ASM and accordingly determine and assign initialvalues to the situational parameters to be factored in by the specificselection logic associated with the specific ASM in question. Thecollected data may include: an interview, an interactive computationalprocess (e.g. questionnaire), relevant data retrieval from externaldatabases, sensors, semantic analysis of the website, technicalstructure of the website, site content structure, site technicalimplementation methods, outgoing and ingoing links from the websiteand/or existing database records, de facto, past user behavior, explicitand/or implicit deductions from similar websites and applications,and/or environmental measurements). The setup module may use some of thealgorithmic methods that are used by the SSM in order to optimize theinitial values assign to the situational parameters. The variablesituational parameters may vary in each session, usage and/or otherrelevant operation, whereas the static situational parameters may bedetermined and stay constant for longer periods of time (e.g. at firsttime installation, once a year, after major changes, and/or at specificapplication/appliance owner request).

Based on the output of the selection logic (i.e. indication of selectedaudio content), the Audio Selection Module (ASM) may, directly, throughan Audio player and/or a media server, upload or stream the selectedaudio content to the accessing web-browser. According to furtherembodiments of the present invention, the ASM may signal a contentserver application, running on the same or on a functionally associatedcomputational platform, to upload or stream the selected content to theweb-browser. The selected audio content may reside on the applicationweb server and/or on one or more networked servers or appliances, someof them may relate to 3^(rd) party applications.

It should to be clear to one of skill in the art the designation thedifferent describes modules (e.g. ASM, SFM, Audio player, SSD, ESM,Setup) is arbitrary and that any function performed by one may beperformed by another. It should also be understood that thefunctionality attributed to any two or more modules may be integratedinto a single module. Conversely, the functionality of any one modulemay be split into two or more separate components. It should also beunderstood that each module may be implemented as one or more differentsoftware components, some (if any at all) of them running at the webbrowser or application and some (if any at all) are running at a remotenetworked web server or application server.

While certain features of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, andequivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. It is,therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended tocover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spiritof the invention.

1. A method comprising: a) visually providing, on a user terminal,business productivity software application functionality and/or utilitysoftware application functionality to a user; and b) causing the userterminal to play one or more audio songs at a time that is simultaneousthat the user engages the software, the audio songs selected inaccordance with one or more production and/or user accuracy and/orengagement level metrics describing usage by the user of the software.2. The method claim 1 wherein the songs are selected according to adeviation parameter describing a deviation between current productivityand/or accuracy parameters and/or engagement level of the currentsession and their historical counterparts.
 3. The method of claim 1wherein the audio songs are selected according to a visual theme and/ora textual theme of non-musical content display and/or input via thesoftware.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio songs are selectedaccording to a context parameter of the software use.
 5. A methodcomprising: a) visually providing, on a user terminal, gaming and/orentertainment software application functionality to a user; and b)causing the user terminal to play one or more audio songs at a time thatis simultaneous that the user engages the software, and the audio songsselected in accordance with one or more production metrics describingusage and/or engagement level by the user of the software.
 6. The methodclaim 5 wherein the songs are selected according to a deviationparameter describing a deviation between current usage activity and/orengagement level of the current session and their historicalcounterparts.
 7. The method of claim 5 wherein the audio songs areselected according to a textual theme and/or visual theme of non-musicalcontent input via the software.
 8. The method of claim 5 wherein theaudio songs are selected according to the current displayed visualwithin the software and/or the next step as explicitly requested by thesoftware user.
 9. The method of claim 5 wherein the audio songs areselected according to a context parameter of the software use.
 10. Amethod comprising: a) visually providing, on a user terminal, gamingand/or entertainment software application functionality to a user; andb) causing the user terminal to play one or more audio songs at a timethat is simultaneous with the displaying of step (a), the audio songsselected in accordance with the combination of: i) a theme describingthe one or more of the displayed non-musical items; ii) user-specific oruser terminal-specific personal data associated with the user terminalor the user; and iii) a non-musical business objective function relatedto future non-musical purchasing activity or future estimatednon-musical usage activity and/or engagement level of the user.
 11. Themethod of claim 10 wherein the method is carried out such that: i) itemswhose description is displayed in step (a) are explicitly requested bythe user in an explicit user request; and ii) the selection of theambient music is carried out such that the explicitly-request items havea greater weight than other information or other items displayed on thescreen.
 12. The method of claim 10 wherein the method is carried outsuch that: i) descriptions of at least some of the items of step (a) aredisplayed in a primary display region of a screen of the user display;and ii) the selection of the ambient music is carried out such thatpreference is given to the primary display region of the screen at theexpense of region outside of the primary display region.
 13. The methodof claim 10 wherein the business objective function optimizes a globalestimated future dwell time and/or engagement level of the softwareapplication of the displayed items of step (a) by the user and/or aglobal estimated future purchase parameter of the application user atthe expense of local estimated future dwell time and/or engagement leveland/or purchases of any item displayed in step (a).
 14. The method ofclaim 10 wherein at least some of the user-specific data is selectedfrom group consisting of: i) a foreign country or foreign time zone ofthe user terminal; ii) an estimated age of a user of the user terminal;iii) an estimated household or personal income of a user of the userterminal; and iv) a navigation path to the current displayed items instep (a).
 15. The method of claim 10 wherein the song selection iscarried out according to a large scale statistical model.
 16. The methodof claim 10 wherein the large-scale statistical model is periodicallyupdated according to detected user behavior to iteratively train,updated and use the updated/trained model.
 17. The method of claim 10wherein the song selection is carried out according to the current stateof the user within the software application.
 18. The method of claim 10wherein the song selection is carried out according to one or morecontext factors specific to the current session.